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Bitcoins

Started by BabylonHoruv, July 16, 2010, 06:47:19 AM

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BabylonHoruv

Sort of an open source paypal.  I checked out their forums and they appear the be full of Austrians and Paulites but I still think it is kind of a neat idea.

http://www.bitcoin.org/

If you install it be prepared to tinker a bit.  It gobbles CPU cycles.
You're a special case, Babylon.  You are offensive even when you don't post.

Merely by being alive, you make everyone just a little more miserable

-Dok Howl

Triple Zero

hmmm well that sounds pretty interesting. it would be awesome if it would actually work.
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

BabylonHoruv

That was my thought.  So far the easiest things to buy with bitcoins is paypal balance as far as I can tell.  However a guy did set up a site similar to craigslist.  It doesn't have anything on it yet though. (which doesn't bother me yet, it only got set up yesterday)
You're a special case, Babylon.  You are offensive even when you don't post.

Merely by being alive, you make everyone just a little more miserable

-Dok Howl

Requia ☣

whats the exchange rate per coin for paypal balance right now?
Inflatable dolls are not recognized flotation devices.

BabylonHoruv

Quote from: Requia ☣ on July 17, 2010, 01:55:30 AM
whats the exchange rate per coin for paypal balance right now?

Currently I believe a bitcoin is worth about 8 cents.  Yesterday they were 4 cents each, which was, apparently, signficantly high.  A lot more people have joined the network lately, dunno if this is a bubble or not.
You're a special case, Babylon.  You are offensive even when you don't post.

Merely by being alive, you make everyone just a little more miserable

-Dok Howl

Requia ☣

I'll have to see if this takes off, and what the white hats say about its security, a way to do microtransactions without fighting that 25 cent minimum card fee would be awesome, and if its actually secure thats even better.
Inflatable dolls are not recognized flotation devices.

Golden Applesauce

#6
I want to crack this system.

All I have to do is break SHA-2, or at least figure out a way to do SHA-2 really quickly, and then not let anybody else figure it out.  And do it before SHA-3 comes out.

How hard can it be?
Q: How regularly do you hire 8th graders?
A: We have hired a number of FORMER 8th graders.

Golden Applesauce

If I'm reading this right, there's no way this is feasible in the long run.  No transaction is confirmed until checking every previous transaction, ever.  They want to steer an entire currency system through dead reckoning.  That might work for now, when almost no one uses it, but "download every monetary transaction using this currency ever" is going to be a major bottleneck in the system.  I'm probably misunderstanding this because nobody is that stupid or that optimistic about network speeds.

I'll come back to this once I'm more awake.
Q: How regularly do you hire 8th graders?
A: We have hired a number of FORMER 8th graders.

BabylonHoruv

I dunno.  They have a forum and you could mention this problem and see how they approached that.  The forum is also full of paulites, which could be fun for you trolls out there.
You're a special case, Babylon.  You are offensive even when you don't post.

Merely by being alive, you make everyone just a little more miserable

-Dok Howl

Triple Zero

Quote from: Golden Applesauce on July 17, 2010, 06:27:53 AM
If I'm reading this right, there's no way this is feasible in the long run.  No transaction is confirmed until checking every previous transaction, ever.  They want to steer an entire currency system through dead reckoning.  That might work for now, when almost no one uses it, but "download every monetary transaction using this currency ever" is going to be a major bottleneck in the system.  I'm probably misunderstanding this because nobody is that stupid or that optimistic about network speeds.

I'll come back to this once I'm more awake.

I intend to browse their pdf paper (linked in the FAQ), which I assume explains on how to deal with this problem.

There's one thing you are already misunderstanding, and that's as far as I've understood, they "only" seem to track the transaction history per individual bitcoin. Of which there will always be maximum 21 million. I wonder how they came up with that number. OTOH I don't see how that would work since bitcoins can be subdivided to 8 places behind the decimal. But if they figured something smart for that, you could easily keep the system feasible by "washing" bitcoins, that is, converting them temporarily to another currency and then using that to build one with a clean transaction history.
It could also mean that bitcoins with a very long history, as they become slower to process, become worth less as this happens, they "wear out", so to say?

Also if this should ever turn feasible, the bitcoin should become worth something like 10-100 dollars. Or maybe even much more, once Pareto's law kicks in and 1% of the population holds 99% of the resources.
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

Golden Applesauce

#10
So I guess the lesson here is, "Don't try to figure out a new cryptographic and/or economic system at 2 am."

eta: can anyone else see their homepage?  I'm getting this:
Quote

Warning: Got error 134 from storage engine query: SELECT data, created, headers, expire, serialized FROM cache WHERE cid = 'variables' in /var/www/bitcoin/includes/database.mysqli.inc on line 128

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/bitcoin/includes/database.mysqli.inc:128) in /var/www/bitcoin/includes/bootstrap.inc on line 670

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/bitcoin/includes/database.mysqli.inc:128) in /var/www/bitcoin/includes/bootstrap.inc on line 671

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/bitcoin/includes/database.mysqli.inc:128) in /var/www/bitcoin/includes/bootstrap.inc on line 674

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/bitcoin/includes/database.mysqli.inc:128) in /var/www/bitcoin/includes/bootstrap.inc on line 675

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/bitcoin/includes/database.mysqli.inc:128) in /var/www/bitcoin/includes/bootstrap.inc on line 684

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/bitcoin/includes/database.mysqli.inc:128) in /var/www/bitcoin/includes/bootstrap.inc on line 693
��������Zێ����SLX4X����jW�]��N ؉o�A�ȡD/O��,�ҫ>@�}��z�^�oR-������Үl�F��+r8����Ӑ�ɼ���� .�(�{��c�e��y_�O=�����GgO��n�Þk���~�0g�u~��y��ɩw��tiYy�*�����nf��I��� ���Ȯsh�Q���#R�-��H�8���rP.�&BsF�\�m]�8�Y��q�l� ���������=�ϸTB�:t�c�:ұ`�ɞ�S��u�R��_�_���g�Ҫ��:gkʩ�R�">q�^�B̈́�KD�����L�������=>�J1�:���6���3����f�0n��Z(-/!/b�n���=�n"��f9���" K�\��ѽ %��s#TU� �q��Hp�JgI߀�1�nJ�K[���m���V|*ny�I���.h���ja���m�T� � d��ݣ�}�Mr���m̴�&��WQ�?��VL���)J��]����(�� _� nG��O)�{�m!����=;�v&�"����J�09���M��V6�?���r�{����#n��y�'l{�����<��w�,��| ��m���O�*�ȱ"tZ�9�("�t�<�R�U�̒18��T��`M�}���|A�� ��"�$�g������Xa��q�\4�𛑹a~�ϠZ �Y䤕Y���X!���l �`���f�Qp3�IH|^�&$������@ezN�')&���ȏ��+��@� t�(�(!��6�����iE�aTi}U�9��M ZO&���:}�9v� y��ᡁ��14͈�WVzn�*���:"��x|2l��&�qm�<�:S��}��y��e��=51�� �`9�rk_B}����kg�� �uQ�YF��y%G�����PMж�����k��Y�+o�5�-?�� /���Y�7���Re��o�H&�r�)�<\4 �9S5˂ew>����ϩ J�G�ι���M+ S+꬐)��Or����C�<�SLS�_S��C�Q� M(]�y�d��ƾ��x�#����)R��d��)�c B�AX/���Z��-��LLѢ���c����\��/ ���}�aAQeZ�� �- `EB�D�ʌ�j�,��#l� ��BI �"o�̲F���8��Ըk�R}�I"�Q3A��LI�X�R1 ��c��mu:�gUk�B�5RБ4-�0dW"�&��Q�͂�I��� ��-�9�L�[@ ��#�-��)�(��f3�K����K˒)a��)�z�͢��Z-����&��� ň�+-��T *� 5�0�b�iAU#�_��a��g{g�(�hFF%��˜�rw��P���J,y0Y�f��.M��Mr����(M6T�>$�Pn;*�&��������I�w����Ѩ�ߩvx���{� �^�.Js{�EP޵�w�E� � �۸�Yz!��I+e3�����j*�x� ��JJ���MQ�-lX��@UJk+H�R�U'�K��Q�ꠕ��(� G����3#sA��v:�� �6�F�N���޹��� y[���8�3~P^ձ�,0�}aB8�w)^�c����G$���Ȏ9��v��XOk��K�Zگ��5�o��0\�l�ylO_�'���]����I~� t�:l�+�޹ GU�r�t�~�r�}�}�����L��j��aC5U��J�p�CC��G�a�}�p8�t'Ñ����8�~��^8� :���+�Ii!K���?8�<�uDoЛ�{>� �����l�'6i�Qp��a�7�v;��� 8���$�'�^0�"�� n������ (���Q?�ÞA��h����+$6�_�g��Nd��X�R �[�<��8j8|c:9[�|�j�ΨoGZW�y�X>�̩au���L�>�h'M�;������������᷶�-;�k���� v��������N79I�`�c#��X�& at,<���5�lz�&/m�U�wZ���݈d{]b��K̙�*�{%�{o��bu7<�Uy G��6�dq���H�z�C:��R�5�7\�ln��Q�g'�.�%�I�W�����5���ʍeU��-Gu�����xA�V iK�������n_�M{��q~�V�r?kZ��gfK�izIÇi�o������c3��v�R���o�3 ng��ۇW&�~���7��'<�䈻&�f޺�U�E��]v�?��^�C�� �]� �V����7Ѫ'>L�q�6W��m�6�����6 W�����6WV��E�6"WV� �J�X-��_��Ϋ����>����&:�/^Z�]��^)w�,�+_.ف+��j͝+��hV��+�7� ��z\t�)!�ǾyS�WU>QI�kT��s�� �|Y��,��4 ���9D,.+��_�;�P��0�k�x�J���#��Ŕ@�g_�=�B�O�ű��T�9�~�2��^;��NT~���ϒ*ͼM����k��U����y��#�VyW�c9�O͗�:A��?��9K�5��
Q: How regularly do you hire 8th graders?
A: We have hired a number of FORMER 8th graders.

Triple Zero

yeah getting the same. obviously the black shades guys at the federal reserve got wind of this and figured it just might work, if not for an unfortunate software/hardware/wetware glitch ...
Ex-Soviet Bloc Sexual Attack Swede of Tomorrow™
e-prime disclaimer: let it seem fairly unclear I understand the apparent subjectivity of the above statements. maybe.

INFORMATION SO POWERFUL, YOU ACTUALLY NEED LESS.

BabylonHoruv

homepage is working fine for me.  Maybe it is being blocked from Europe?
You're a special case, Babylon.  You are offensive even when you don't post.

Merely by being alive, you make everyone just a little more miserable

-Dok Howl

Requia ☣

Nah, I get the screwy homepage too, other places on the site work though.
Inflatable dolls are not recognized flotation devices.

Requia ☣

Quote from: BabylonHoruv on July 17, 2010, 12:25:10 AM
That was my thought.  So far the easiest things to buy with bitcoins is paypal balance as far as I can tell.  However a guy did set up a site similar to craigslist.  It doesn't have anything on it yet though. (which doesn't bother me yet, it only got set up yesterday)

Where is this?  I've some DVDs I've been meaning to sell, but I can't stand dealing with paypal, might as well give it a shot.
Inflatable dolls are not recognized flotation devices.